Solar Eclipse
by SeaSpectre160
Summary: Answering Optimus' call, an Autobot crash-lands on Earth, hoping to find his brother. Little does he know, he's in way over his head. Rated for language.


**Damn, I can't believe it took me more than three years to get this thing finished. Lots of on-again-off-again writer's block, and spending more time on newer fandoms. But here it is; I love the twins Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, and I'm not sure why they separated the twins in the movies. This is not part of the 'Ties That Bind AU', just so you know. That's still a work in progress.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the Transformers characters, only Jackson, Wilson, McNeil, Red Fragger, Slag-Head Black, and Purple-Aft.**

 **WORD COUNT: 4219**

* * *

It stuck out like a sore thumb (to borrow a phrase he would here days later), that was for sure. Among the thick growth of organic flora, the large, smoking hunk of metal was difficult to miss, along with the long trail of carnage it left behind upon crash-landing on the planet's surface. He surveyed the damage carefully, trying not to put too much weight on the leg that'd been injured in the crash. The Energon tanks were ruptured – it was a miracle from Primus they hadn't blown up – so there was no way getting off this rock anytime soon. The communications system was completely fried now. It'd already been damaged long before he'd reached this solar system, able to receive signals but not transmit them.

Now what was he supposed to do? He'd come to this planet after hearing the call from Optimus Prime himself, but instead of finding any fellow Autobots, he was stuck in a region populated only by millions of primitive organic beings that wouldn't be the least bit helpful at all, with no way to contact help.

Tentatively, he reached out with his sensors, scanning for another to contact. Optimus was definitely somewhere on this planet, but who else was? Bumblebee? Bulkhead? His own brother? Primus, he hoped his brother was there. It'd been eons since he'd seen his other half. The physical distance alone was unbearable at times.

His spark gave a leap when his sensors detected another Cybertronian heading this way, soon joined by two others. He lowered his instinctively-raised weapons, relieved.

But looking at the sky, he realised that it wasn't an Autobot coming at him.

Oh, slag.

* * *

 _Several Hours Earlier…_

Will released a sigh of contentment as he leaned back on the sofa of the break room. He'd been up for the past seven hours since the crack of dawn, dealing with paperwork and introducing their newest recruits to the Autobots. They'd decided to ease the newbies into it with Jolt, since he was one of the smaller and less intimidating mechs on the site. The twins were on the small side, too, but Will didn't want to scare his new recruits right off the bat. Mudflap and Skids would probably get into a fight and reveal themselves before he and Epps could mentally prepare the men for what they were about to see.

Now, he could finally relax for a short while.

 _INCOMING UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT!_

Or not.

Groaning, Will got up and made his way to the command centre. Epps was already there, along with Optimus and Ironhide. "What have we got?" he demanded upon entry.

"One large metal object is about to crash in a remote forested area near the Rockies in Montana. Could be a Cybertronian ship."

"Friendly?"

"Dunno."

"Okay," Will decided, "We can land C-17s at their nearest base, and we'll have to drive from there, but some of the roads aren't in the best condition. It'll take us a while to get there. We could load up a chopper or two for recon, see if it's friend or foe."

Optimus looked over the maps again and, judging from the zoned-out look he got whenever he looked things up on the Internet – considered information about the area, then nodded. "That seems to be the best course of action," the Autobot commander agreed.

* * *

Several hours later, Will was in a helicopter with a pilot and six other NEST soldiers, flying over a nearly endless expanse of evergreens. He was a city boy by nature, so Will couldn't help but be awed by the trees that grew well past fifty feet tall and covered the landscape. The Autobots weren't too far behind the choppers on a logging path. From the comm. device in his ear, Lennox could hear some of them grumbling about the dismal road conditions.

"Major!" Will looked over at the pilot, who was pointing further ahead. "Four Cybers spotted up ahead!" Sure enough, when Lennox squinted into the horizon, he could make out four figures having a throwdown. _"Looks like it's three 'Cons and one 'Bot,"_ Epps commented from the other helicopter, _"Damn, the new guy's gotta be good if he's taking on that many at once."_

"Good or not, I doubt he'll last forever outnumbered like that," Will replied, "Let's put on some speed, people!"

 _"_ _Who do you think it is?"_ Ironhide wondered.

 _"_ _Ya think it could be the triplets?"_ Mudflap suggested.

 _"_ _There's only one good guy, idiot,"_ Skids shot back, _"How's it supposed to be them?"_

Mudflap, of course, focused on the insult in the statement. _Who're you callin' an idiot, idiot?"_ They were too far back for Lennox to see, but he could hear the metallic crunches and clashes as the twins started throwing down in the middle of the mission.

Ironhide growled through link. _"Slaggin' twins! Sideswipe, gimme a hand with these two rustbuckets!"_

 _"_ _Okay, guys, break it-"_ Sidewipe suddenly cut off, going silent for a few seconds.

Will tapped his earpiece. "Sides? Sideswipe, can you hear me? What's going on?"

 _"_ _SLAG!"_ Everyone jumped as the mech's voice crackled through the comm. systems. There was the roaring of an engine, and suddenly the silver Corvette was right behind the choppers and passing them, rocketing recklessly up the dirt road and kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

 _"_ _What the hell?!"_ Epps voiced excitedly what Lennox was thinking.

 _"_ _Sideswipe, what is the meaning of this?"_ Optimus Prime demanded.

 _"_ _OUTTA MY WAY! NOBODY MESSES WITH SUNNY WITHOUT ANSWERING TO ME!"_ Within seconds, Sideswipe had caught up to the fight, transforming and taking on one Decepticon who'd tried to intercept him.

Lennox looked back at the Autobots, still too far behind. The twins, at least, seemed to have stopped fighting out of pure shock. He stepped closer to the open hatch. "Epps, you and Wilson get ready to ride with Sides!" he ordered. With the rest of the Autobots still far behind, the humans would have to take matters into their own hands. "Sideswipe, tell your buddy to get me and Jackson on his shoulders!"

The soldier next to him, Private Jackson, got up out of his seat and stood next to Lennox, ready to jump. It was a maneuver they'd practiced several times, in which the soldiers would jump into the waiting hands of their Autobot allies, who would deposit the men onto their shoulders so they could fire from a relatively protected position. It'd been gone over a dozen times before, but they had yet to use it in the field, with real Decepticons attacking, and it would be a risk to do it with an unfamiliar 'Bot.

As the old saying goes, there's a first time for everything.

Lennox watched the other chopper flew over to hover above Sideswipe. Two figures, Epps and Wilson, leapt from it, and the silver Autobot caught them with ease, ducking a swing from a Decepticon before setting them in place and unleashing his blades. _"Sunstreaker's ready to act!"_

The pilot of Will's helicopter got as close to the other 'Bot, who was taking on two 'Cons at once. "Get ready!" he shouted, partly to Jackson and partly to alert the Autobot. The latter glanced up at him and fired a few shots to make the enemy jump back and give himself room to work with. "JUMP!"

* * *

Sunstreaker couldn't have been happier to feel his twin approaching mere minutes into his battle. Sides responded over their twin bond with equal joy at their reunion, but neither could break their focus to say hello out loud. Not that they ever needed to.

So instead he shot one Seeker with red armour with his laser cannon when the 'Con tried to sneak up on his twin.

A whirring sound caught his attention, and Sunstreaker spotted two hovering vehicles coming nearer. They had no spark signatures on board; probably very large drones. He was about to shoot, but stopped when Sideswipe shouted a warning over their private link: _"Don't shoot! They're allies! Listen, when two of them jump out, catch 'em and on your shoulders, go it?"_

 _"_ _What in the Pit are you talking about?"_

 _"_ _Just watch me!"_ Sunstreaker dodged a blow from the purple-armoured Seeker and threw a punch the black Seeker, watching in his peripheral vision as two small figures – organic according to his scans – exited the flying vehicle and jumped. Sideswipe caught them right away, though the momentary distraction nearly allowed Red Fragger to get a blow in. After setting the organics on his shoulders (Sunstreaker's tanks roiled at the thought of allowing an organic to actually touch him), he pulled out his blades and got right back into the fight.

"Get ready!" Sunstreaker looked up to see the other vehicle hovering near him with two more organic beings leaning out of its hatch. Their language streamed from Sideswipe's processor into his own, translating their speech. He fired two more times with the laser cannon at the two other Seekers coming at him, forcing them to back off for just a few seconds. At the same time the two organics leapt off, and Sunstreaker reached out to allow them to land in his hands. He quickly put them on his shoulders, although from their shouts, he guessed he'd done it a bit too roughly. Oh well. It wasn't his fault if these squishy creatures were a little delicate.

Slag-Head Black was the first to recover, flipping and transforming in mid-air into an unfamiliar-looking type of aircraft. Of course he would do that. Seekers _were_ made for air combat, after all. Sunstreaker ducked as the 'Con let loose a volley of firepower from above, resisting the urge to tuck and roll. He wasn't sure if the organics would be able to hang on. He didn't see why he had to care about them, but if Sides said they were allies, then slag it, he'd do his best to keep them alive.

The groan of creaking metal alerted him to Purple-Aft's presence, but his bad leg suddenly gave out, and Sunstreaker lost his balance.

He fell to one knee, catching himself with one hand and raising his left arm just in time to block the blow. Purple-Aft grabbed it in a firm grip, crushing it slightly, and was taking aim with his blaster. With both hands occupied and his leg _seriously_ hurting, he couldn't do anything to defend himself.

Sunstreaker was prepared for instant blackness, or a Pit of a lot of pain. What he _didn't_ expect was a loud crack to come from his left shoulder, or for Purple-Aft to back off, clutching his elbow joint as Energon dripped from it. Sunstreaker turned his head to see the organic on his left holding what looked like a scaled-down blaster, which was smoking at the barrel. The creature looked back at him with what looked a lot like a grin before rapidly firing off more shots, his companion on Sunny's right following suit.

Sunstreaker couldn't help but be impressed by that. These tiny, organic creatures were actually doing damage!

He knew when the sunlight darkened that he was in trouble. Slag-Head Black was coming right at him, his cannons glowing with a full charge. The organic on his left shouted and let off a few rounds, but the Seeker had already fired. Sunstreaker lifted his sparking left arm to try and shield the organics somewhat, although he knew it wouldn't do much good.

He definitely felt the blast impacting and knocking him back, along with the overwhelming pain. But the shouts of agony weren't his.

Sunstreaker hesitantly opened one optic, wishing he hadn't when he saw Sideswipe collapsed on top of him, optics dimming and sparks and smoke coming off his back where he'd intercepted the blast. "Sides!" he gasped. _"What the Pit were you thinking?!"_

Sideswipe gave him a weak grin. _"Wasn't about to… let you go down like that."_ The physical pain was fading as Sideswipe drifted offline.

 _"_ _Hey! Sideswipe, don't you dare fade out on me!"_ But his brother never answered. Sunstreaker could still feel his spark, but it was weak. His twin, usually laughing and joking, was reduced to a terrifying state of near-deactivation.

Sunstreaker glared up at the three Seekers now just standing there, smirking at the sight of his mortally wounded brother. Rage built up inside him, and he was only vaguely aware of the two organics dropping off his shoulders as he got up (he didn't know or care what had happened to the ones hitching a ride on Sides) and laid his twin's limp form to the side. He charged right at Slag-Head Black, who tried to fly out of his reach. But Sunstreaker, ignoring the pain in his leg in his fury, leapt as high as he could and grabbed the Seeker by the tailwing and dragged him back to the ground.

Sunstreaker held Slag-Head Black down, ripping his chestplates open and exposing the spark. Without a moment's hesitation, he fired one shot from his blaster, destroying it and permanently offlining the Seeker.

He then turned to go after Purple-Aft, but the 'Con had already taken off into the sky when it became clear his buddy was doomed. That left Red Fragger. Sunstreaker heard the sound of heavy ped-falls a split second before two mechs charged into view. Ironhide clocked the 'Con on the side of the head, then charged up his cannons and blasted half his side off. The second, whom Sunstreaker recognised as none other than Optimus Prime himself, came in and sliced his head off with his Energon blade. Just like that, it was over.

Sunstreaker moved towards where Sideswipe still laid, but his leg had finally it had taken enough abuse, and gave out about halfway there. A pair of servos steadied him. "Hold still," he heard Jolt order, "You're leaking Energon all over the place." He didn't even look up at the other mech, keeping his gaze locked on his brother, who was now being examined by Ratchet. Sunstreaker didn't have to be a medic to know his Sideswipe's injuries were serious. He tried to move over to them, but Jolt held him back. "I said stay still! Don't make me sedate you!"

Reluctantly, Sunstreaker allowed the assistant medic to work on his leg, only just beginning to register the pain. Looking around, he was surprised to recognise many Autobots milling around. The younger twins Mudflap and Skids were alternating between gaping in horror at Sideswipe and looking at him with mild surprise. Ironhide still had both of his cannons out, his optics scanning the skies just in case Purple-Aft came back with reinforcements. Ratchet and Jolt were working on their respective patients, the former distractedly adding his own comments to the conversation going on between the Prime and the organics.

He'd honestly forgotten about those creatures, but now he had to wonder what they were doing working with the Autobots. They were small and fragile-looking, so how were they able to harm Purple-Aft like that? Curious, he listened in to the conversation.

"He's got a broken arm from crashing into that tree," one organic (the same one who'd been riding on Sunstreaker's left shoulder) reported, "But other than that, Wilson's just fine. It's Epps I'm worried about. His parachute got caught on Sides's arm as they went down, so he hit the ground pretty hard."

"I gave him a quick scan," Ratchet stated, "There's no serious brain damage, but he'll wake up with a mild concussion. Jolt, I need your help over here. McNeil, you get to work patching up Sunstreaker's leg."

Jolt looked up from sealing an Energon line, and nodded. Another human, relatively smaller than the others, broke off from the group and jogged over. Jolt waited until it started climbing onto Sunstreaker's leg before he left. "Damn," it swore in a feminine voice, either not noticing or completely disregarding his glare for threatening his paintjob even more, "What did you _do_ to it?" She detached what looked like a separate storage unit from her back and pulled out some miniature tools, including a blowtorch sized about right for her. "Alright, first things first, let's finish this seal."

Sunstreaker narrowed his optics and covered the injury with his servo. "What makes you think I'm going to let a little organic femme take a blowtorch to me?"

The femme huffed and gave him a surprisingly sharp glare. "I've been training under Ratchet for years, and I spend nearly every other day fixing Mudflap and Skids. I'm fully qualified to deal with an injury like yours. So let me work, or I'll have to bring out the wrenches."

"I'd do what she says," Ironhide interrupted, "McNeil is like a mini, organic, female Ratchet. She can chuck wrenches just as well as he can. Pit, she's nailed Skids in the optic from thirty feet. That's five or six times as long as she is tall."

Sunstreaker stared at the femme – McNeil – who was still glaring up at him with a lit blowtorch in hand. Not even The Hatchet could hit his target so accurately at a distance of five or six times his height. And it would take quite a lot of skill for the 'Bots' top medic to trust her with this job. "Fine. But if she wrecks my paintjob-"

"It's already trashed," one nearby organic pointed out. Sunstreaker turned his glare onto him, and this one backed off. He supposed the females of this race were the brave ones, but then, all the others around him appeared to be male, and they'd performed some surprisingly brave – albeit stupid – stunts.

By the time McNeil was finished, the other Autobots had determined that the 'Cons weren't coming back for Round Two, and the worst of Sideswipe's injuries had been stabilised for now. Sunstreaker was by his brother's side as soon as he was allowed to limp over. It unnerved him to have Sides right in front of him but total silence on their bond.

* * *

Sunstreaker never left his twin's side, even when they had to trek back to the main road. The drive back to the nearest military base of the organics – they called their species humans – was trickier. Sideswipe was loaded into Optimus's trailer, and Sunstreaker tailgated him the entire way, copying Sideswipe's new alt-form for the sake of blending in.

"Yeah, because this convoy is _so_ inconspicuous," McNeil commented.

On the way, Jolt gave him a basic rundown over the comms. This planet was called Earth, and as Prime had said in his broadcast, the Autobots had aligned themselves with the humans, who were the dominant species, against the Decepticons. Megatron had already fallen with their aid, and now the remaining 'Cons were coming here to settle the score. And since there was no way Optimus Prime was going to leave any sentient species, let alone one that'd helped kill _Megatron_ , at the mercy of the Decepticons, the Autobots were staying to protect them.

Earth was divided into hundreds of factions, some at war with each other over territory and/or various belief systems, but a few allied factions had welcomed the Autobots, provided them a base, and created a joint task force with their military forces to aid in the fight directly. These were the organics who had fought the Seekers alongside the twins today.

What was more was that these humans weren't simply allies. Despite the fact that they were small, squishy, and – ugh – organic, the other 'Bots had no problem treating them as equals. Their field commander, named Lennox, could give orders to most of them in battle, though he didn't seem to dare trying it on the Prime. And when they boarded a small aircraft (small by Cybertronian standards, but the largest that the humans apparently had to offer) that could still fit all the 'Bots in their alt-forms, the human soldiers talked and joked with their Cybertronian counterparts.

They eventually touched down at the Human/Autobot joint base of operations, and Sunstreaker was mildly startled at how different the terrain was from that of his crash site. While he'd landed in an area densely covered by tall, organic flora with billions of lesser-intelligent animal species, this was a small spit of sand in the middle of a vast expanse of saline water, sparsely dotted by a little spot of plant life here and there. Sunstreaker wondered how his fellow Autobots could stand to be surrounded by such a corrosive substance.

He followed Optimus and Ratchet to the building designated as Ratchet's workspace. Sideswipe had been stabilised before they'd moved him, so now Ratchet and Jolt could work without much pressure. Aside from the silent pressure that was Sunstreaker sitting in the room and watching, but the medics had long since gotten used to that from both sets of twins. Some of the humans helped, apparently designated as Ratchet's assistants, and if it weren't for the fact that repairs were actually going faster with their help, Sunstreaker would have demanded that the organics quit crawling all over his brother and leaving nasty organic trace material on him.

Eventually, Sides's repairs were complete, and once Ratchet finished checking over Sunstreaker's leg, he left the twins alone for the night.

* * *

The last thing Sideswipe remembered before slipping into involuntary stasis was fighting 'Cons alongside his brother. That and a Pitload of pain. So when he came back online, he expected to still feel sore, and yep, there it was: that aching feeling of newly-repaired injuries. And more importantly, he felt his twin through their Bond, more strongly than he'd felt him in years, since they'd gotten separated many vorns ago. The physical distance had been agonising at times. But now they were reunited; the two halves becoming whole once more.

"You slagging idiot."

And of course that was the first thing Sunstreaker would say. "Like you wouldn't've done the same thing," was his own retort. Because Primus knew they'd taken more hits for each other than a human, at least, could count (eighty-two, to be exact, though not all had been as bad as this). He opened his optics to see Sunny glaring down at him.

"You're lucky Ratchet was able to fix you up so quickly. You could've offlined for good."

"I know, I know. Hey, how are Epps and Wilson?"

"Who?"

"The humans who were riding on my shoulders. Lennox and Jackson were with you; are they okay?"

Sunny paused looking like he was thinking. "Lennox is the human in charge, right? I remember him saying 'Epps' hit the ground pretty hard, and Ratchet said he'd get a mild 'concussion', whatever the frag that is. He seemed to be the one they were most worried about, so I guess the others are okay. What's the big deal if a few squishy organics get banged up, anyway?"

Sideswipe was startled at first, but then remembered that his brother didn't know. Remembered that he'd had the same attitude when he'd first landed. "Well, for starters, Lennox and Epps are a huge part of the reason that this group exists. We'd have had a Pit of a time getting to you without their resources. When Prime and his team found the All-Spark, those two were part of a group of soldiers that fought the 'Cons alongside them to protect it, and this was before their government had any idea what was going on. They and their people offlined Blackout without any help from us, and it was a human youngling who used the All-Spark to take out _Megatron_."

He could feel Sunny's shock and disbelief through their Bond. "WHAT?!"

Sideswipe winced. "Keep it down, Slag-Head, or the Hatchet's gonna come back in here!"

Sunstreaker tossed a furtive glance at the Med Bay doors, but no sound came from beyond. He lowered his voice anyway. "Are you fragging serious?!" he hissed.

"Yep. I heard it from the Prime himself, and he wouldn't make that up. Look, Sunny, the humans may be organic, they may only live a vorn long if they're lucky, but aside from that, they're a lot like us, and they're what's gonna tip the balance in this war. Just give 'em a chance, will you?"

He could feel Sunny thinking it over. His twin had even bigger issues with organic _anythings_ than he did. "…Alright. But only because you're the one asking, you crazy slagger."

THE END


End file.
